


Opening, 5 Years Later

by melonbun



Series: Linhardt/Mercedes/Byleth [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: 2nd person w "you" being byleth, Happy Ending, Multi, Spoilers, by virtue of bein post-timeskip, fast burn, like a fucking match bc baby ain't got no time for pining, no beta we die like men, this is black eagles w/ edelgard route bC THAT'S THE ONLY ONE I'VE PLAYED DDSKJF, this is mostly a placeholder rn so I can work on kinktober but it'll be complete eventually, waddup i'm here to feed the fUCK out of myself thanks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2020-11-24 18:24:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20912087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbun/pseuds/melonbun
Summary: It's been 5 years since that fateful day. Signals long since sent, one thought dead, and now in the midst of a war, Byleth, Linhardt, and Mercedes must sort out their tangled relationship.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to call this series I'm really fucking gay and i have a lot of feelings but i thought maybe i'd rein it in a bit

5 years you’d slept. You spend your first day being caught up on the war and it’s hours before you have the chance to slip away. Throughout it you learn that Mercedes, now a general, is away so knowing you can’t see her the person you're most concerned about seeing is right in front of you, green hair and blue eyes. You can’t help how quickly you walk up to him, wanting to ensure he doesn’t slip away, knowing how possible such a thing was in the last five years. But he turns and greets you with one of those soft smiles of his.

“Professor! I’m so happy to see you I even skipped my morning and afternoon naps.”

You could almost weep with relief, that despite everything it’s still him. You grab his hand and pull him into a side room, burying your face into his shoulder and holding him close.

"Professor?"

You swallow, overwhelmed at how different things are, how much time you'd missed. You ground yourself in Linhardt's presence. 

He's taller than you now.

He simply brings his hands to your shoulders after a while, understanding that you need this and you thank him silently for obliging you.

When you pull away you have to look up to search his face. So much time missed, it aches. 

"Are you alright Professor? Perhaps you should take a nap."

You shake your head, you've slept for five years after all, but what comes out of your mouth is "Byleth."

It's monotone as usual but he seems to get the point, "I'm sure it will take some getting used to but alright, Byleth."

Hearing your given name his fall from his lips sends heat through you and to avoid doing something you'll regret you grab his hand. You give it a quick squeeze and nod before walking off; you don't want to do something you'll regret.

\--

When night comes you find you can't sleep. You've had nightmares before but that's not the problem, you're terrified that you'll wake up and another five years will have passed, or that this is all a dream and you really really died that day.

You find yourself wandering the compound and before you know it your feet bring you to Linhardt's room. 

Back when you were his professor you knew it was taboo to like him in the way you did, showering him in gifts, inviting him to tea, fishing with him. You knew it was wrong to favor him so heavily but you couldn't help it. The fall if his hair, the sweep of his eyelashes, his plump lips but besides that, his bold attitude, his sleepy patterns, his intense focus, his disregard for things that didn't interest him like nobility and pride. All of them called to you and before you knew it the boy had endeared himself to you.

You'd been in his room before but you'd been in everybody's room before, monthly checks for contraband and the like, never at the same time as a student.

But it might've been right to say Linhardt had a crush on you while you were teaching, from the way he smiled at you during tea time to the hours you spent fishing together to the way he stood closer than strictly necessary during lessons, peering over your shoulder into your tome.

It had become commonplace for the two of you, along with Flayn, to fish together and for him to lean against you, because he was sleepy as always. You'd come to cherish those times, careful not to move unless a fish bit, your heart beating much more quickly than it should've for someone sitting still.

But your crush was innocent and boyish and you wouldn't ruin it or Linhardt's innocence by trying to move things forward or even acknowledging it. So it was your first time approaching Linhardt's room in the night.

You leaned your head against the door. What were you even doing here? You sigh, knowing you're not going to sleep by yourself any time soon. You raise your hand to knock and then pause. What if he doesn't want you here? You don't know where you stand with anybody. You knock anyway because if not you'll stand here all night. Perhaps you'll become the compound's latest ghost rumor.

Surprisingly enough he answers the door. 

"Pro-Byleth. What are you doing here?"

You stare at him for a second before your brain catches up to you. 

"I just need a place to sleep." Linhardt frowns but perhaps he's learned some tact because he doesn't say anything about your own bed, your own room, instead stepping to the side. You enter, relieved once again seeing the room is still covered in piles of books.

He walks over to the bed and climbs in, holding the covers up and you climb in after him. You sit in the dark for a while, mind still racing, and you don't register that Linhardt's breath hasn't slowed to that of sleep until he says, "worry about it tomorrow," rolling over and pressing his head to your shoulder.

His bed is warm and you are tired. You elect to take his advice.


	2. The Stew is Delicious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew boy, this isn't abandoned i've just been working on my ocs' story so ! ! here's chappy 2, chappy 3 should be up sometime this week too!! :3c also !! lines from Lin's c support in case u were like wow that's familiar

When you wake in the morning Linhardt is lying on his back but his arm is thrown over your chest and his leg is tangled with yours. You take the time to study his face, committing all of its changes to memory. Somehow he seems even paler than before. His jawline has filled out some, his lips aren’t as plump in their setting and his eyes aren’t quite so big. He stirs and you quickly turn back to the ceiling, closing your eyes.

He doesn’t immediately climb out of bed and instead you feel eyes on you, they make your skin prickly and though you’d like to pretend you’ve just woken you’ve always been bad at feigning anything. So instead you simply open your eyes. The ceiling hasn’t changed from five minutes ago. You give Linhardt time to look away but he doesn’t so you meet his eyes. They are...such a unique shade of blue, not like sapphire or cerulean or royal blue or the sea or the sky but they are wide and you think to yourself stupidly that they are very, very blue.

“What do you have planned today, Profess-” he shuts his eyes, “Byleth,” he finishes and smiles.

“I was going to dye and cut my hair before anything else.” It’s returned to its still new-ish to you green shade. Your eyes too are green but there’s nothing you can do about that. Your hair has also grown, it’s down to your waist and unmanageable as is, you want to lop it off. So much of it and so green doesn’t fit you, makes you feel strange when you look in the mirror.

Linhardt hums, nods, “I did notice you dyed it back to blue back then.”

He’s still smiling, small, but it’s distracting, that little upturn of his lips. He’s blocking your exit so you can’t leave unless you climb over him and you don’t plan on doing that. He yawns, stretches, and then climbs out of bed. He begins to strip and you pause, not freeze, but almost. You can’t very well open the door now but seeing Linhardt in his underthings is doing things to your brain. He’s really so pale all over, huh. There’s a mole on his stomach. You swallow, looking back at the ceiling as you carefully climb out of bed and exit anyway. You’re sure you must look silly, your eyes fixed above you, but it’s better than being caught staring. As you close the door behind you you let your breath out in a whoosh. You head to buy the supplies to dye your hair.

You cut it to shoulder length, they way you’ve had it before before you dye it, careful not to stain your fingers or face. Then you put it up in a ponytail and stare into the mirror, Your eyes seem to glow. “Sorry Sothis,” you think, “nothing against you.” You miss her. 

Linhardt slides into the seat across from you at dinner. “You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to join you for breakfast,” he all but pouts.

“I didn’t eat breakfast,” you deadpan.

“Hm, well neither did I," he hums, yawns. You hope he ate lunch because peach saghert and cream hardly counts as dinner but that’s what he’s eating. Though maybe you put that habit into him; it was a dish both he and Mercedes enjoyed so almost once a week the three of you ate it for dinner. You decide he’s an adult and you can’t scold him, not without sounding like a hypocrite at least. After dinner you find yourself being led back to LInhardt’s room. 

"I have to go get my night clothes," you frown. 

"You can just borrow one of mine," he rummages around in his closet which you note somehow also has books in it. You peek the spine on one, it's on necromancy. So are all the others.

He shuts the closet again and hands you a nightgown. You place it on the bed. You watch as he settles at his desk without changing.

_ Linhardt comes in with rumpled clothing and bags under his eyes. You figure today's going to be a day in which he sleeps in class. You aren't wrong. You let him sleep, at least he's here. _

_ You weave your way between students after classes to Linhardt's room. You rap twice on the door and hear a grunt from inside. You wait thirty seconds and rap again. _

_ "Who is it?" The voice sounds slightly peeved. _

_ "Professor Byleth.” There’s the sound of something being knocked over and then the door opens halfway, he blinks at you, sleepily, sleepily. _

_ “How can I help you, Professor?” You hand over the notes from today. _

_ “Oh? But these are?” _

_ “Don't miss the lectures.” _

_ “It's not that I want to miss lectures...exactly. Drowsiness is my archnemesis. For some reason I just can't seem to win against it. Just talking about it makes me sleepy…” _

_ You blink, slowly, “perhaps if you didn’t spend all night doing, whatever it is you do, you could stay up during lectures.” _

_ “But why would I trade a night of crest research for a day of boring lectures? I haven’t fallen behind in your classes anyway, right?” _

_ Crest research then, is that it? _

_ “Speaking of which,” and he smiles, serene and devious all at once, “perhaps you’d let me study your crest sometime. We could learn a lot about it, and about you.” _

_ You nearly shudder thinking of it, as if Linhardt knowing more about you wouldn’t make his lackadaisical attitude towards classes even worse. _

_ “No.” You say, decisively. He hums, “well perhaps another time, with that, goodnight.” He closes the door. You realize he didn’t take your “no” for what it was. _

Seemingly reading your mind he turns to you. “Say Byleth, would you let me research your crest?” He smiles that same smile from five years ago. 

“You’re still researching crests?” You say instead, surprised but glad it’s managed to keep his interest for five years.

“Well yes, the war’s put a bit of a hold on things but I’ve found out some fascinating things,” and then he launches into an excited spiel that half goes over your head. “...which is why you should let me research your crest.” Is what he ends with.

“Maybe another time,” you concede. 

When you wake up in the morning you have his hair in your mouth.

It takes two weeks for Mercedes to return from where she is stationed. “Professor!” She cries out with bright eyes and a wobbly smile. You press your cheek to hers when she embraces you.

About Mercedes, you love her calmness, her kindness, her forgetfulness, her soft voice, the curve of her cheek and the dimple that dots her left one, her bushy eyebrows. She’s cut her hair but hasn’t grown any taller at the very least, you let out a sigh of relief as you hold her at arm's length and examine each other. She cry-laughs, “you haven’t changed a bit, Professor.”   
“Byleth,” you say and she smiles, “Byleth” she breathes and you want her to say it again.

“Dinner?” Is what you say instead. She nods and the two of you walk arm in arm to the dining hall. It’s a stew tonight. You’ve just taken a mouthful when you see Linhardt enter across the hall. You give him a little wave and he beelines over, “Byleth, I was just thinking, you should definitely let me-” and then he sees Mercedes and his face goes impassive.

“Mercedes,” he says stiffly.

“Linhardt,” she says sadly and again the chasm of five years past stretches out before you.

“Care to join us?” You say at the same time he says “I’ve just remembered I have something to do,” and then he leaves. You feel that he takes a piece of you with him.

Mercedes regards you with sad eyes, their depths like pools. She hasn’t aged in appearance but she looks _ older _, more tired. So does almost everyone, they carry this war with them, heavy and burdensome, under their eyelids and on the curves of their spines.

You take another sip of soup but suddenly you’re not so hungry anymore.

“Should I ask what’s happened between the two of you?”  
Mercedes puts her hand in her chin and looks down at her food.

“The stew is delicious tonight,” is what she says instead. Her eyes look so sad.

You want to confront Linhardt too but when you reach his room he’s not there. Or at least, nobody answers your knock. You check the library but he’s not there either. You check the pond, too, and eventually decide to settle down and fish. You’re not sure how long you’ve been fishing, just that the sun’s gone down. Dorothea and Ingrid stop by, as do Ashe and Caspar.

You’re not one to gossip but you’ve noticed the pairings around the monastery. Ashe and Caspar, Dorothea sometimes with Petra and sometimes with Ingrid, Ferdinand who follows Edelgard and Hubert around like a puppy. You briefly wonder if the war has the ability to push those together just as it does to rip those apart before bitterness seeps in, thinking the war may do just so but it rips apart many more than it pushes together.

It’s late, much later than you thought when you return to Linhardt’s room. You knock on the door, quietly, tired, hoping he won’t freeze you out. You’ve grown accustomed to sleeping with somebody else, your room is too lonely with no Linhardt, no Sothis. You slide down against the door and decide you’ll wait for him if need be.

You don’t remember drifting off but you awake to a ghostly pale face in front of yours, a candle flickering to the side. You blink and so does the face.

“Well, up with you, I didn’t think you’d be here or I’d’ve come back sooner.”

“Where did you think I’d be?” You ask as you shuffle inside, your voice rough with sleep.

“You ate dinner with Mercedes, didn’t you?"  
  
“I invited you as well.”

Linhardt plays with the ends of his hair. He smells like someone else. Not of books and ink and tea but of roses and something spicy.

“Well, let’s sleep, then.”

You’re starting to get miffed with people bypassing your comments but you let it slide.

You find sleeping with Linhardt when he smells of someone else isn’t as soothing, instead you spend the night wondering where he’s been, _ who _ he’s been with, for the past five years. And then your mind wanders to what he’s been doing, if he’s skilled, the sounds he makes. Then you’re awake for a different reason, your cock aching between your legs and unable to be touched. He’s right next to you, you could find out for yourself. And really now, whenever did you become so easy to rile up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More mercedes next chapter !! bc it's what she deserves and i love her

**Author's Note:**

> i know it's sUPER SHORT but i just wanted this to be the "first" in the series so I can throw out kinktobers


End file.
